Sub View: Testing: One step forward, two backward

We are leaving behind the ‘No Child Left Behind’, and trying to find other ways not to leave behind anyone. Teachers, at last, will be able to teach what needed, and students may be able to learn something beyond the mandated standardized tests.

However, the tricky part is not that the standardized tests are the enemy of education, but how they are applied, and what they are used for. For years, now, students had been told not to worry about those tests since they are not used to evaluate them, but their teachers and their school. I have written pages over the irony in how we are so surprised that students don’t take these tests seriously then...

There is, however, one valid test in all this ‘testamania’, that does make, at least, some sense, the California High School Exit Exam (aka CHSEE). This is a standardized exam that proves that a high school graduating student possesses some basic knowledge. It is, in no way, a sufficient measure of skills since it represents eighth grade level, yet, it is one-step toward accountability in education.

Unfortunately, with the wave of repealing everything, this valid criterion is caught in the net too… Hello!!! This is exactly the type of test that is essential. It evaluates success of the individual and has a direct effect, the kind of motivator we need... 

There is only one way to assess what students learned, and more important, what they really knows - an independent, objective test. We don’t keep kids in schools just to make them busy, or retain teachers and administrators for employment. The purpose of school is to teach, and for students, to learn. How do we verify that we fulfilled our mission? By reliance on each school? By trusting each teacher? By believing that all students are created equal and thus acquired the same information?

Schools, districts, teachers, are as different from each other as individual students. We can’t assume that a graduate of one school has the same skills and knowledge of a graduate from another school… Yes, they may have gone through the exact same program, text books, guideline, but does it mean they are equally educated?

The reason why the answer is ‘absolutely not’ is not only because students and teachers are different, it is because every element of the education system is different. Does it mean that we have to give in and say ‘oh well, we cannot fight those differences?’ No! we cannot fight the differences but we have to make sure that the end result of education is similar, despite the differences…

The only way to make sure that no (capable) child is left behind, is to set unison, clear goal for every child, and encourage them to move toward it. A stable target that is not realigned by schools, or teachers, to accommodate slackers who wait for the target to move toward them, but to force them to move toward the target.

The only way to do so is by instituting standardized graduation tests, matriculation tests as in other countries, where passing exams constitutes true graduation, while occupying a desk for twelve years results in receiving a matching certificate…